


Her Valentine

by MariaLujan



Category: Call the Midwife
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Forbidden Love, Valentine's Day, classic turnadette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-18 14:26:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13683528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MariaLujan/pseuds/MariaLujan
Summary: The first Valentine´s Day of Sister Bernadette.





	Her Valentine

It was not the first time nor was it the last time Nonnatus received roses on Valentine's Day. However, there was cause for commotion. The lucky one was Trixie, but her bouquet arrived without a card so the rest of the nurses speculated who could be the mysterious suitor.

They had many possibilities, and despite the fact that in the morning they had been reprimanded twice by Sister Evangelina, the gossip continued until they saw Sister Bernadette approaching and their voices went out.

“I'm not going to reprimand you, but put on your work before Sister Evangelina returns.”

The nurses smiled relieved and resumed the talk, this time without ceasing to order and sterilize. Sister Bernadette listened to them trying to hide a smile without success. She liked that everyone felt free around her to talk about their issues and she felt part of it in a certain way.

Suddenly she was startled when Trixie spoke directly to her.

“Who do you think will be the one who sent me the flowers, sister?”

“Trixie!” exclaimed the others, but the young woman ignored their scandalized looks.

“I think the postman is very interested in you, Trixie.”

They all opened their eyes and mouths wide.

"Really? How do you know that, sister?”

“I can´t see, but I look” she said pointing to her glasses and they all burst out laughing.

Soon Trixie began to make a list of the qualities of the postman, that although she barely knew him, he seemed extremely handsome.

“And he also has a lot of class” Sister Bernadette said as she passed, leaving them all amazed before laughing again.

She would have liked to stay with them to continue sharing several appreciations about the postman and the other suitors of Trixie, but she had to go to work, and she had also listened to the steps of Sister Evangelina too close. She felt the familiar weight of sadness and looking down, she barely said a farewell with a whisper. Before closing the door of Nonnatus, she drowned the laughter that caused Evangelina's screaming to find the nurses talking again about boyfriends.

She barely crossed two streets when she saw Fred selling roses of dubious origin and several boys buying them. The girls who were with the boys smiled blushing with the roses in their hands and some of them paid the gift with a loud kiss.

She tried to repress again the sadness and something like absence, perhaps absence of laughter and gossip with nurses, or worse, absence of someone to give her a gift or at least to say her Happy Valentine's Day.

Valentine was a saint and it was wrong to think about it, but suddenly she hated him. Why did he have so much interest in marrying lovers and why now they all used this day to show their love? She shook her head, she could not let a simple celebration that did not correspond to her give her such thoughts. However, she could not stop gritting her teeth and continued with the trip to the Moore's house.

When she arrived, a strong smell of flowers greeted her. Jen Moore laughed when she opened the door caressing her belly of just nine months, saying goodbye to her husband with a kiss.

“Oh, sorry, sister” Jen said when she noticed the show of affection that she had just given to the man who left hurry straight to his work.

“That's not to apologize, Jen. Yes you have to apologize for those chocolates I see there” the nun pointed to a large box of chocolates on the table, next to a vase full of flowers.

“I only took two, I swear it”  Jen said laughing as she was, almost a newly married child, "Tom brought all this to me, it's an exaggeration. Take the ones you want, sister.”

They looked tempting and she extended her hand to take one, but she felt out of place, she should not take a gift made with so much love, for another person. She made an excuse that they hurt her liver and turned her strange sense of guilt into a soft reprimand to Jen for not taking care of the consumption of sugar.

After examining her and a short talk, she left the Moore house and saw that Fred was nearby, with more roses. She smiled, with this day he was going to win a fortune surely. Beside him she also saw someone she did not want to see and lowered her eyes, put her bag on the bicycle and prepared to walk with it to the Smiths' house, which was a few steps away.

She forced herself not to look at him, blocked her eyes and ears, tried to say a prayer in vain. Everything she experienced when she left Nonnatus, suddenly felt multiplied by a thousand. There was the reason for her sadness, her sense of absence, her hatred of a poor saint who had nothing to do with chocolates and roses. In the fog of her mind, Fred's words to Dr Turner came to her.

“I'm not selling them, I'm giving them away, Doc. How do you think I would sell them to you? At least take one, I guess you'll have someone to give it to.”

It took all her strength not to throw her bike and yell at Fred. She was sure they were unintentional, but his words sounded completely out of line. Of course the doctor had someone to give a rose to, the grave of his dead wife. She quickly thought of the speech she would say when she saw Fred in Nonnatus.

“Sister.”

She looked up, at the Smiths' door, the doctor greeted her.

“Good morning, Doctor” her nerves shot up, and she concentrated on staying professional, trying to forget everything that had been going through her head just a few seconds ago. ”Did something bad happen?”

“Mr. Smith is with a terrible flu, which I fear will turn into pneumonia. Did you come for his wife?”

“Yes. God, I hope Helena has not been infected, nor any of the children” Unintentionally she looked down at his hands, in none of them she saw a rose and unconsciously sighed in relief.

They both reached out to knock on the door, and he smiled, letting her do it. She cursed herself because this, something as foolish as knocking on a door, suddenly complicated her with a hand trembling with nerves. She was saved by an exhausted Helena Smith who greeted them as if they were angels fallen from heaven. Indeed, Mr. Smith and two of his children were sick, and Helena was very upset.

Sister Bernadette reassured her, giving her some advice to avoid getting infected and also offered help. The woman calmed down, accepting that Sister Bernadette came every day to see her and also help her with the house and with the other two boys who were still healthy.

When they left the bustling and otherwise hot house, the street seemed quieter and the cold air hit them. She shuddered and out of the corner of her eye she saw that he was smiling. She looked at him without understanding.

“With this cold, you're going to get sick too, sister.”

“You better than anyone should know that I never get sick, doctor” she surprised herself saying that, there was still a smolder of her vivid answers to the nurses. He looked surprised too but let out a laugh.

“That's true, but anyway you're going to have to be careful not to get infected in this house. We can’t lose our savior. It was a nice gesture you had.”

She frowned, stunned because she liked to hear his laughter, and also his words, and because she did not know what he was referring to.

“What gesture?”

“Your help for Helena.”

“It was not a gesture, it's just my job” her voice was more severe than she wanted, and without knowing why she felt bad about it. He, however, did not erase the half smile that, if she remembered, she saw in him since she found him in front of this door.

He greeted her with a nod and walked to the car. She made her way to her bicycle.

“Sister” she heard him said and turned quickly, not knowing that he was so close to her that she almost collided.

Her eyes nailed straight into a red rose he held in his hand. Instinctively she opened her fingers and he gave it to her, barely brushing her skin with his hand. She forgot all the strength she had done not to look at him and saw him directly in the eyes. Perhaps she had also been infected by the Smiths, because suddenly she had a complete lack of air although she knew it was due to the look she had just found in those eyes.

“Happy Valentine's Day” it was all he said.

She watched him go, processing his words as best she could, invaded by the sweet perfume of the flower, and of him.

For the first time, she received a rose.

 

 

 


End file.
